Newark firefighters/paramedics Brad Stemple and Nick Keener run through their morning check of equipment and medicine on the EMS truck at fire station No. 3.

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Much has changed in Newark's emergency medical service in the past 50 years, say the people who started that service and those who maintain it today.

"Without the emergency medical service that we have, a lot of people would not survive," said Capt. Mike Bolte, EMS coordinator for the Newark Division of Fire.

In 1963 and 1964, local residents raised $16,000 to buy and equip the department's first emergency squad, according to former Newark Fire Chief Tom Bader, 87, who helped staff that first squad as a captain. Firefighters began training in March 1964 to become medics. They hit the streets as ...